


the lamb sought its altar

by eraserheadbaby



Category: Tales of Berseria, Tales of Series
Genre: Codependency, F/M, Incest, Pre-Canon, Self-Sacrifice, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-14 03:14:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20593757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eraserheadbaby/pseuds/eraserheadbaby
Summary: If it will keep Oscar like now, safe and happy in her arms, Teresa will gladly spend her entire life like this.





	the lamb sought its altar

The sun stares down on the parched wood, and so the black shell shows its golden glaze. The beetle walks on the enormous tree trunk, with the light paving its way- until it's obscured by a quick shadow and then put on a rough palm.

Teresa takes a scanning look at the creature in her hand before turning towards Oscar. "Here. You want to look at it, right?"

Oscar's eyes shift between her and the beetle, an askance look on his face. But as soon as he has the insect in his hands, it lights up with crystal joy. Teresa feels her own face smile- it's really not like him to forgo his trained manners, not giving one of those practiced regal thank yous. 

She prefers it this way. When Oscar takes off his frills, his wreaths and garlands, all the testimony to aristocracy he carries, just for her, it gives the time they spend together a certain aura of singularity, one that freezes her heart and makes it skip a beat.

“Isn't it beautiful?”, Oscar asks her, flashing her the beetle in his hand like a precious pearl. The blue of his eyes crinkles with the rush of his excitement, and his smile is a drop of dew amongst the drought of the shrunken woods.

No, it isn't beautiful. Teresa can't for the life of her understand what's beautiful about a dirty, hideous bug with such threatening pincers. But she could never forgive herself if she made that glowing face of Oscar's even just one shade darker.

She begins to respond, “Yes, it is-”

Teresa feels her apron stick closer to her body before she realizes the reason why. Oscar has wrapped his arms around her, his face buried in her shoulder and his beetle forgotten, left free to roam in the woods again.

“Don't lie to me. I know you find them disgusting”, he says to her in a muffled voice. “And still you do this all for me... Nobody else tries this hard to make me happy...”

Now that's something Teresa thinks about a lot- how to make Oscar happy. She thinks about it as she scrubs the floors of the palace, everyone walking over her with a glare until he comes and his smile shines down on her. She thinks about it when she overhears Oscar getting scolded for playing with her in the woods again. She thinks about it before she falls asleep in the murky attic of brooms and used washcloths.

The answer is right in front of her, and it's so simple it catches her off guard.

Oscar will always be happy, as long as she forgets about herself. If everything that falls on her hands becomes kindling for a fire that will keep Oscar warm. A beetle today, her last breath tomorrow.

Her arms close around Oscar's back, their movement resonating like a stamp sealing her fate with purging finality.

If it will keep Oscar like now, safe and happy in her arms, Teresa will gladly spend her entire life like this.

**Author's Note:**

> "wow it sure is fucked up how no one is as unnerved as they should be by how much teresa disregards herself for oscar" i think as i play berseria. then i proceed to write this.


End file.
